* I’ll put up a separate post about this as well, but you know that strip me and Matt Rota did, “Kitchen Sink,” that is now up on Top Shelf’s website? Due to an error that I’ll assume was mine, the version that was initially posted was an early draft, pages 4 and 5 of which were substantially revised in terms of dialogue for the final version. That final version is now up, and I think you’ll find it very different and, I hope, much clearer in intent. (Even before this snafu I’d written a comic about why I made the changes I made to this strip, so you’ll probably get the story on that eventually if you want to see it.)

* The big news of the day is obviously the shuttering of DC’s Minx line of graphic novels for teenage girls. CBR’s Andy Khouri broke the story, Tom Spurgeon has a big, well, let’s call it a shrugpiece up that’s the most thorough and thoughtful thing you’ll read about it, and Heidi MacDonald links to reactions.

* The aspect of the story that means the most to me is what it means for the career of Ross Campbell, who published the very weird and very good Water Baby through the line and who Bryan Lee O’Malley points out is, between Minx and Tokyopop, sort of cursed with this sort of thing. Campbell says while there weren’t any concrete plans for a Water Baby sequel, he had at least planned it a bit; providing the rights situation is smooth he’ll be incorporating some of the book’s characters into his series Wet Moon.

* I don’t really care about Cloverfield director Matt Reeves (the poor guy who played fourth banana behind J.J. Abrams, Drew Goddard, and the dude behind the camera) remaking a recent Swedish vampire film called Let the Right One In beyond the fact that that’s a terrific title and the poster for the original is gorgeous. Eat it, Trajan.

* They’re doing a prequel to I Am Legend, which as I’ve said could be a very good thing if they take to heart the deserved criticism of the original’s unscary CGI monsters and forced ending.

* At The House Next Door, Brandon Soderberg pens an excellent post about four very, very affecting M83 singles and videos: “Don’t Save Us from the Flames,” “Teen Angst,” “Graveyard Girl,” and “Kim & Jessie.” I love these songs and videos so much that everything else I’ve heard from M83 has left me flat, but Soderberg really gets at how both the audio and video components of each nails the romantic/Romantic teenage experience without idealizing it. About the only thing he doesn’t get spot on is the power of the image of the little dog’s ghost in “Graveyard Girl,” which has made me cry at least twice. Here’s a sample quote:

Too often, especially in movies that grossly misread the classic 80s Hughes films—to which all these videos owe a debt—the “outsider” is either a kind of “diamond in the rough” who just needs to meet the right people or a decided outsider who is “better” than those around them. It’s not so simple here, where Frost and Gonzalez expertly illustrate the dark-haired girl’s ennui without totally justifying it. She’s clearly more interesting than the average kid, and there’s something affecting about her biking around in her soccer uniform, but she’s a bit much.

The actress is perfect because she’s pretty enough, but insular and awkward enough too, and that’s what sort of makes her life suck. She’s the kind of girl who after a few years in college or in “the real world” won’t be an outsider at all, but for the time being is weird because she’s quiet and draws pictures and daydreams. It’s more affecting because her life isn’t completely hopeless; she’s not Martha Dumptruck.

* Ron Rege Jr. has been posting some very, very cool text-incorporating art lately.

* Jason Adams touts the T. Rex sequence in Jurassic Park as “one of the finest accomplishments in all of cinema. It’s up there with Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps as far as I’m concerned.” I haven’t really ever returned to the movie, but the experience Jason describes having had with the sequence is exactly like how I feel about the attack run on the first Death Star in Star Wars. That is a perfect action sequence. In my experience (and I’ve had a lot on this score!) if someone walks into a room and it’s on, they will stay to watch it through the end, almost guaranteed.

* Finally, remember the other day when I echoed Tom Spurgeon’s fondness for Bruce Baugh’s writing on World of Warcraft? (phew!) This post is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. What’s fascinating isn’t just how Bruce makes the game accessible to non-players without really even seeming to try, but what he has to say about why he plays in the first place and what he tries to get out of it when he does so. I don’t know about you, but I’m accustomed to thinking of video games, role-playing games, and even sports in terms of winning and losing, trying to do awesome things and trying to avoid sucking, pwning people and getting pwned. All of that can be fun! But Bruce effortlessly points out there’s any number of other ways to emotionally engage with a game. He talks about how repetitive actions and dreary landscapes weigh on his moods, how he selects companion creatures in order to maximize the aspects of the game he enjoys and (literally) brighten the day, how he’s currently playing to do all the things he always wanted to do but hadn’t gotten around to yet. Unsurprisingly the approach is similar to Bruce’s attitude toward art, which is generally one of setting out to enjoy things because enjoying things is good for you. I don’t know how much of all of this is the child of necessity given Bruce’s often dicey health situation and an often literally physical need to have fun rather than be pissed, but god is it refreshing!

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